Kenyans Grapple With Job Cuts

An effort to cut back Kenya’s bloated civil service is throwing workers into a financial tailspin and sparking harsh criticism of the government at a time when the country is suffering a serious economic crisis.

The move introduced in July by Kenya’s head of public service, Richard Leakey, has so far seen about 25,780 workers axed from 16 ministries. A total of 48,829 civil servants out of a work force of more than 200,000 are to be let go by June 2002.

But in a country where more than half the population already is estimated to be living below the official poverty line, critics charge that the program was implemented with inadequate arrangements for retraining and redeploying terminated workers. On Friday, the country’s High Court ruled that the program be put on hold, pending hearing of a suit aimed at blocking the cutbacks.

There was no immediate reaction from the government. But officials, economists and representatives of the international donor community insist that painful restructuring of the civil service is essential to help pull Kenya out of its economic doldrums. The reform also was a precondition for the resumption of international financial aid.

“You can’t expect it to be popular,” Leakey said recently. He was given the task last summer of rescuing Kenya’s civil service--notorious for its overstaffing--from the depths of mismanagement and corruption.

He said the reform was necessary because it would help generate growth in the private sector, which would increase employment.

The famed conservationist and son of British colonialists also argued that trimming the work force would help improve delivery of government services at minimum cost. Leakey emphasized that the state would no longer tolerate incompetence within the civil service, would insist on financial accountability and would refrain from funding money-losing state enterprises, which would simply be allowed to fail.

“It seems the government has decided that they need to take a pretty hard look at how they hand out resources and try to maximize the benefit of those resources,” said Tom Fletcher, second secretary at the British High Commission in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital. Britain is helping fund the program.

In some ministries, salaries account for well over 90% of the budget.

“The immediate gain of retrenchment is a reduced government wage bill on [the] budget, which allows the government to allocate more of its expenditure toward the delivery of goods and services to the people,” said Lucas Ojiambo, an economist at the World Bank in Nairobi. “To a layman, this means increased funds for maintenance of key items such as roads, hospitals, water wells, etc.”

But many of the fired employees fear that they will face financial hardship at a time when, according to Fletcher, at least 58% of Kenyans already live below the poverty line.

Some workers collapsed upon opening their notices. Others charged that the decision to fire them was based on tribalism or favoritism. Most have complained about the severance pay--a $508 golden handshake plus individual pension packages--and many worry about losing their government housing.

“It’s unfair because I was not given any reason,” said Rose Okech, 46, a mother of eight who worked for 22 years as a surveyor’s assistant. “At my age, how am I going to educate my children?”

Given only $2,308 in retirement benefits, Okech, whose husband is unemployed, has three months to move out of her government housing. Other civil servants said they fear being evicted from their rent-free accommodations before receiving the full sum of their allowance.

The government has pledged to help the former civil servants settle into the private sector.

A series of five-day workshops aimed at counseling laid-off workers began in mayhem Monday at 200 centers nationwide. Confusion and noisy protests marred the first day, as many workers boycotted the training sessions, demanding a lump-sum payment for attendance instead of the daily transportation subsidy of $6.

Many of the workers questioned the value of the training program, which emphasizes investing their benefits. Michael Kiragu, 28, a former government printer who joined the civil service five years ago straight out of college, said he didn’t understand business. “That’s why I chose employment in the government,” he said.

The National Labor Party, whose suit resulted in Friday’s High Court ruling, wants the government to revoke the layoff of workers who have not reached the legal retirement age of 55.

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Samuel Hinga Mwangi of The Times’ Nairobi Bureau contributed to this report.